itero
by invisibly inked
Summary: i remember you (multiverse AU) Dave/Jade. 04. In which Dave is the cool Detective Strider and Jade is the mob boss' daughter and the key to closing this case.
1. Girls in White Dresses

**chapter title: girls in white dresses**

******01. How the princess of Prospit marries the Prince of Derse and no one is very happy about it but they pretend anyway .**

** .**

The Princess of Prospit is lovely, you think, all tan skin and dark hair and glass emerald eyes that you _swear_ are made of starlight, especially when she smiles. Except she isn't smiling now and the stars in her eyes are a little dimmer but she's still lovely and you still love her.

"I don't want to be married," she says, tears running down her cheeks and it breaks your heart (unevenly, because things hardly ever break right down the middle), "I don't want to be married to _him_."

You hold her close to you, your chin rests on top of her head and you can hear her little hiccups, her tears spill onto your shirt. "I know," you say and you wish there was more you could do rather than just hold her for this little while.

"I love _you_," she says and looks up at you desperately, "I love_ you._" Her voice breaks off at the end and it takes all your willpower not to kiss her right then and there because tomorrow she gets married to the Prince of Derse (the_ other_ Prince of Derse, your older brother) and will no longer be yours (not that she was ever yours in the first place really).

Your willpower isn't as strong as you thought it was though, and you kiss her anyway and hold her anway for a long time because maybe then you will melt into each other and never have to leave and this won't be the last time you get to have her like this.

"I love you too," you say and you wish, desperately, that this didn't have to be the last time.

**.**

(except it isn't the last time at all. the night of her wedding you sneak into the room she's staying in and pretend not to notice how beautiful she looks in that white dress as you lead her to the balcony and ask her to run away with you.  
she doesn't even hesitate as she takes your hand in hers)


	2. Jade the Teenage Witch

**chapter title: Jade the Teenage Witch**

**summary: in which spells go terribly wrong and Jade is horribly amused**

.

"This isn't going to turn me into a cat or something is it?" Dave asked, peering into the cup at the..."drink", Jade had just handed to him. It was hot pink. And bubbling. Dave was incredibly suspicious.

"Of course not!" Jade said as she began to clean up the kitchen, "And that only happened _one time_, jeez get over it already, I turned you back didn't I?"

Right, you mean after I almost got killed by that stupid dog two blocks down and then almost run over by that truck on the highway because I was being _chased_ by said stupid dog, Dave didn't say.

"So what's this gonna do again?" he asked instead.

"Make you fall in love with me," Jade said casually as she moved to put a jar of frog legs (_ew what the fuck_) into a cabinet. Dave stared blankly at her, she grinned when she caught his gaze.

"I'm _kidding_," she said and laughed, "I'm not allowed to clash with Free Will, remember?"

Dave nodded. "Right 'course I do, because I'm a goddamn expert on all things witchy Harley," he said sarcastically and she stuck her tongue out at him and then hopped onto the island next to him.

"It's supposed to improve eyesight," she said.

"Why don't you wear contacts," he said, "like I do?"

"I tried," Jade said, "they bother my eyes too much." Dave looked down at the potion again. It bubbled dangerously, Dave wasn't even sure that things _could_ bubble dangerously but it did, and then it turned purple. It was probably going to kill him.

"Why don't you ever get John to be your test subject?" he asked.

"He's learned to grow immune to the puppy dog look," Jade said, arms crossed and slightly pouting.

_"How_?"

"I _know_ right?!" she exclaimed (the puppy dog look was her thing, she invented that look, people were not_ immune_ to it. she suspected Rose somehow played a part in this 'immunity' thing) and then, "Now hurry and drink it."

Dave took a deep breath. "If I die, don't let Egderp anywhere near my shit, okay?" he said and Jade rolled her eyes. He downed the contents of the cup. There was nothing for at least two seconds and then there was a big_ poof_ of smoke and Jade couldn't see anything.

"Dave? Are you-oh, _shit_."

"What? I'm not a cat am I?" Dave asked and then he froze because that wasn't his voice. This voice was higher pitched and..._girly_.

"Harley what the fuck did you do to me," he-or well, _she_ said.

Jade covered her mouth, tried not to laugh and failed. Dave glared at her, not seeing what was so hilarious (he had boobs and long hair and girl parts and _she needed to change him back now_) and that somehow only made her want to laugh more. She doubled over, holding her sides as she laughed and nearly fell off the island. Dave narrowed his eyes and decided he was not going to stand for this any longer.

"I'm leaving," (s)he said and grabbed his backpack from off the kitchen floor, "Maybe _Rose_ will actually help me." He left her alone in the kitchen, off to find his other magic practicing friend.

Jade was still laughing when John found her, twenty minutes later.


	3. Ghost Whisperer

**chapter title: ghost whisperer**

**summary: he says he won't leave until he gets closure. or something.**

Jade thinks she is imagining things when she first sees him. She's on her way to class, headed towards the bus stop and, well, there he is, just standing there like-like he's _waiting_ for her. He still looks the same-the same white-blond hair and red-and-white record shirt and those stupid dark shades she used to pretend she hated even though she did think he looked cool in them. And he's still tall and lanky and _Dave._

He turns and looks at her and smiles and Jade rubs her eyes because that's impossible Dave is _dead_, has been for three months now, and she wishes her mind wouldn't play such cruel tricks on her sometimes.

When she looks back he's gone (obviously) and there's this sudden rush of sadness in her chest that she'd thought she'd managed to finally get rid of (obviously not).

**.**

**.**

He's in her room when she gets back home and Jade blinks and rubs her eyes and pinches herself so many times she almost bleeds. He's still there and she tries not to cry.

"But you're _dead_," is all she can say.

"Astute observation there Harley," he says dryly, and God, he even still _sounds_ the same). Jade suddenly feels so overwhelmed and faint. She moves to sit on her bed. He sits next to her and even though she doesn't feel the pressure of the bed sinking from his weight like she would to someone more alive, she feels it when his arm brushes hers and that's enough to make her tear up a little.

"You feel so real," she says and he shrugs.

"Yeah, I am real. I mean, I'm not alive. I'm dead-a ghost or spirit or whatever but I'm not imaginary or something. I guess. I don't know, I'm not making any sense," he says and sighs. There's a five second awkward pause before Dave says;

"I missed you Jade."

He says it so quietly, so softly that it feels like her heart is breaking all over again. She looks at him with misty green eyes.

"I missed you too," she says with a watery smile, "but how are you here? What are you doing here?"

Dave looks up at the ceiling while Jade looks at him. "I don't know. Unfinished business or some shit like that. That's usually the reason right?" he asks, "Except I don't really know what unfinished business I _have_."

"So...you came to me for help?"

He turns his head to face her again. "About that. Well, here's the thing Harley," he says slowly, "You're...kind of the only person who can see or hear me."

Jade blinks. "...Oh," she says.

_Oh._


	4. Interrogation Room

**chapter title: Interrogation Room**

**summary: In which Dave is the cool Detective Strider and Jade is the mob boss' daughter and the key to closing this case.**

**.**

Dave had his feet up on the table and was leaning back in his chair as he stared her down. They'd been sitting in silence for five minutes and when Dave had said he could do this all day he hadn't _really_ meant it. He was running out of time. She'd given them a time limit of twenty four hours. Twenty four hours until she'd kill Senator Vantas and now they were down to three and Dave and the rest of the FBI still had no idea where she was keeping him.

He rested his shades on top of his head and rubbed at his eyes as he put his chair back in it's normal position.

"Are you ready to cooperate?" he asked, finally breaking the silence and put his shades back on.

"I'd cooperate," she said, "if I had anything to tell you." She smirked and Dave narrowed his eyes.

"C'mon Harley, cut the bullshit and tell me what I want to_ know_ already," he said as he slammed his hands on the table, beginning to lose his patience. She didn't flinch.

"I don't know where the Batterwitch is," Jade said calmly, "Believe me if I did I would have told you a _long_ time ago." Dave shook his head.

"You expect me to believe that? She's your mother, how can you not know where-"

"She is not my mother!" Jade exclaimed, indignant, "I hate her. I hate her. That's why I split from her and her stupid gang and all that crap a long time ago. Or shouldn't you already know that _Detective_?" Jade glared at him as he straightened up and looked at her coolly behind the dark glasses.

"You're lying."

"_What?_ No-"

"You hate her. But you're protecting her," he said and she was silent, "Why?"

Jade clenched her jaw and looked away from him, sucked in a breath. "Because," she started in a quiet voice, gone was the confidence and snarky attitude, "She doesn't just have Senator Vantas."

She looked at the detective with watery green eyes.

"She has my brother."


End file.
